[utunga]

It's an important question that deserves a considered response.

IMHO its more than just lack of designers (though that's important) it's actually a balance of power thing.

Delivering really good UX requires taking a design-led approach to the whole project. Unfortunately this conflicts with one of the main reasons coders enjoy working on open source. No management, no customers and you get to work on what you want. Design it for yourself, not others.

But of course, the interface that the average coder wants is nothing like the interface that the average user needs - especially if the average coder is intimately familiar with all the features. Most coders appreciate this and try to design a 'friendly' interface but at the end of the day it's a power imbalance. In a conflict between clean design or adding more features, a team led by programmers is going to prioritize features.